Mayor of Blount County Ed Mitchell took to Facebook last week sharing a comparison of how Tennessee counties have fared under mask and no-mask mandates.
Blount County, which is not under a mask mandate by Mitchell, has Maryville as its county seat and largest city. It lies in Tennessee’s eastern grand division adjacent to Knox and Sevier counties, both of which have mask mandates in place.
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America will weather its current hysterias.
But the tensions and furor are reminiscent of the last generations of the Roman Republic. In its last century, Romans began to adjudicate politics by obsequious partisan town criers (their version of our media), mass demonstrations, and freelance street gangs. Looters, arsonists, and demonstrators did pretty much as they pleased in the streets of Rome without fear of legal consequences.
In our time, the media has now vanished – kaput, no more, ended.
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Members of the Williamson County School System are reportedly looking to implement a cultural competency program, but former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain said it will likely divide different categories of people even further.
The Nashville-based FOX 17 reported last week that Williamson County School System Superintendent Jason Golden wants a cultural strategy program.
But Swain told The Tennessee Star Monday that Golden and school board members need to ponder what, exactly, they want to accomplish.
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Citing the “the alarming increase in the spread of COVID-19,” Metro Nashville Public Schools will move all students to distance-learning after the Thanksgiving break.
The district on Monday evening tweeted, “Metro Schools is returning to all-virtual learning following the Thanksgiving break on November 30 through the end of the semester, December 17.”
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by Jake Dima A New Jersey police chief vowed to limit enforcement of a recent string of coronavirus orders from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy ahead of Thanksgiving. Howell Township Police Chief Andrew Kudrick Jr. said he would rely primarily on community judgment rather than law enforcement intervention in response to Murphy’s regulations, according to a statement. The governor’s order limited indoor gatherings to ten people, shuttered restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. and capped the number of attendees at funerals and weddings, among other gathers, NBC Philadelphia reported. “Howell Township Police will rely on the community to be responsible for their own actions without enforcement intervention as they have done in the past,” the chief wrote. “Of course they will respond to egregious violations such as packed house parties, so please think as you plan any gatherings.” “We are not going to be interfering with people’s Thanksgiving dinners or their holiday dinners or their social gatherings, unless it’s something egregious,” Kudrick said, according to NBC News. The New Jersey police boss also criticized Murphy for allegedly exempting those engaged in political activities from the order. “When you exempt certain peoples, especially those who are attending political activities, from the executive orders, I think that same…
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An opinion columnist at the University of Virginia’s student newspaper encouraged her readers to “stand up” to “racist family” at Thanksgiving.
Emma Camp, who writes a regular opinion column for the Cavalier Daily, asserted that “white progressives must privilege their principles over personal comfort” in conversations with family during the holiday season. In order to fulfill this mandate, they “need to stand up to their racist loved ones.”
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Harvard University is creating a new position for its Ivy League campus: an “Associate University Librarian for Antiracism.”
The salary grade (061) for the position is listed between $133,300 to $240,300 per year.
The ideal candidate will have at least 10 years of experience and demonstrate strong data analysis, leadership and administrative skills, according to Harvard officials.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to weigh in on the ongoing Upstate New York House race and how the Republican Party will be very different.
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Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Sunday strengthened the state’s mask mandate and limited attendees in private gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving.
Residents must wear face coverings whether gathering indoors or outside if any member that’s not in their household is present, according to a press release from the governor’s office. Private gatherings are limited to 10 people from a maximum of two separate households and public events will be capped at 50 people or 25% capacity, whichever is less, the order, which will last a total of three weeks, read.
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Many die-hard college basketball fans remember the disappointment they felt last spring when the 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled because the coronavirus that was, at the time, starting to emerge in the United States.
For 2021, all signs are pointing to March Madness taking place even while the country continues to live through the pandemic, but the annual spring tradition for college basketball fans will look much different from years past.
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Joe Biden’s likely choice for national security adviser sent more than 200 classified emails found on Hillary Clinton’s private email network, and touted a now-debunked allegation before the 2016 election which fueled the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was in cahoots with Russian leaders.
Biden will select Jake Sullivan to serve in the White House role, The New York Times and Bloomberg reported.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss past presidential moral dilemmas and their impact on foreign policy.
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Many states in the U.S. are hinging their COVID-19 mitigation strategies on the availability of a widely available vaccine. An issue bound to arise is the extremely cold temperatures the most promising experimental vaccines need to be kept at and the logistics of delivering them across the country.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is estimated to remain stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 36° to 46°F for 30 days. Longer storage means a required temperature of mRNA-1273 needs -4°F for up to six months.
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Monday afternoon in downtown Nashville, a rally of just over 100 people protested the latest gathering limit from Mayor John Cooper. None of the police were present at the Legislative Plaza steps where everyone gathered.
Cooper coined the term “Rule of 8” for the city’s latest pandemic-related order ahead of Thanksgiving. The event description on Facebook described the rule as “ridiculous and unconstitutional.”
Pastor Greg Locke hosted the protest. Locke announced the event during the third “Stop the Steal” rally last Saturday – Trump supporters have pledged to gather every weekend until the general election lawsuits are resolved.
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At the center of the pending lawsuits surrounding this general election is the integrity of electronic voting systems and the companies that own them. One company of particular interest is Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion), referenced by attorney Sidney Powell in multiple press conferences and interviews.
Powell has claimed that Dominion is responsible for switching, losing, and assigning different weights to votes. The attorney has also claimed that those who awarded contracts to Dominion did so for sweetened deals: guaranteed increased power and massive payouts. Powell further alleged that Dominion’s software and executives have ties to Venezuela and the late Hugo Chavez.
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Members of a left-leaning environmental group have announced that Georgia’s two U.S. Senate races are the key to them and their political allies in Washington, D.C. enacting the Green New Deal into law.
Members of this group, the Sunrise Movement, announced their intentions late last week.
According to an emailed Sunrise Movement newsletter, members think they can use the Georgia U.S. Senate elections “to transform this country.” The newsletter did not identify which of the four primary U.S. Senate candidates would help them achieve their goals. The Green New Deal, however, is a Democratic Party initiative.
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Senate Bill 311 (SB311), a bill to limit the Director of Health order-issuing authority, will be vetoed by Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine. The Governor has 10 days with which to exercise that right – speculation is he will take all 10.
However, SB311 is not dead.
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For months, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine steered cleared of publicly second-guessing President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, despite their differences in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, following the governor’s move to shutdown the state over rising COVID cases and remarks urging a swift conclusion to the challenges to the 2020 election irregularities, President Trump suggested another Republican should challenge him in Ohio’s 2022 election.
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Congress passed the CARES Act last March, sending many taxpayers $1,200, giving $100 billion to health providers, and boosting unemployment benefits by $600 a week, according to Govtrack. The $2 trillion stimulus bill also sent $150 billion to states and localities across the country. Virginia received about $3.1 billion dollars, with a separate $200 million sent directly to Fairfax County.
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The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board unanimously voted in favor of repealing its Proper Attire Required ordinance (PB 2-21) during a Wednesday meeting. This discussion had been tabled from a July 16 Park Board meeting.
The conversation about the nudity ordinance was prompted by an incident of alleged public nudity in July at a Golden Valley beach and the subsequent media response.
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Members of the State Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party have asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to order an immediate audit of the absentee ballots cast in the 2020 general election.
This audit, members of the Georgia GOP said in an open letter, must verify that signatures match.
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A resolution to block Governor Ralph Northam’s COVID-19 shutdown executive orders is circulating in the counties around Lynchburg. According to reporting by WSET, Boards of Supervisors in Campbell, Bedford, and Appomattox Counties are considering drafting a resolution repudiating Northam’s interference in local business.
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State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield), a Republican gubernatorial candidate for 2021, called the Democratic Party of Virginia racist and said that the group hates white people.
On Friday night, Chase posted the statement to her Facebook page in response to an article about Virginia Democrats calling for Richmond General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter to either be removed from the position or to resign on her own.
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The Michigan State Board of Canvassers on Monday voted to certify the Nov. 3 election results on a 3-0 vote with one member abstaining.
Republican board member Aaron Van Langevelde voted with Democrats.
“I’ve reviewed every section. I haven’t found anything about an audit,” Van Langevelde said. “I found nothing about authority for us to delay certification because we’re waiting for more accurate results. I found nothing about making certification contingent on an audit. I found nothing that gives us the authority to review complaints for fraud.”
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The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy dismissed a case challenging the department’s issuance of a permit to increase water withdrawals by Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) in Osceola County.
EGLE announced on Friday it would dismiss the case, which was filed in 2018 by the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. An EGLE statement stated the groups “erred in not appealing the permit directly to circuit court.”
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost initiated suspension proceedings against Cincinnati City Councilman P.J. Sittenfeld on Monday amid allegations of corruption.
Sittenfeld has been accused of accepting $40,000 in bribes and was charged with two counts each of honest services wire fraud, bribery and attempted extortion, NBC News reported.
Sittenfeld has denied the claims, saying that he is “innocent” and that the allegations are “simply not true.”
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University of Tennessee at Knoxville Law Professor Glenn Reynolds is calling out the Metro Nashville Department of Health’s claims over COVID-19 closures, saying they are “not following the science.”
Starting Monday, Nov. 30, Nashville will limit bars and restaurants to 50 percent capacity, NewsChannel 5 reported Monday. They must operate at half capacity with 6 feet of social distancing for a maximum of 100 customers per floor, whichever is less.
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